Economic Challenges of Delay in Construction Projects and Its Solutions The Case of Construction Projects in Tehran's Road Sector

This study aims to consider economic challenges in construction projects in road sector from the perspective of clients and contractors. Then, the main focus is on two highway projects in Tehran. Whereas, the main problem in implementation of these projects is delay in land acquisition. The results show which management factors are the most important in delay of the projects’ development. The other goal which is considered in this study is finding out whether or not clients’ and contractors’ viewpoints are close to each other. To achieve this goal, spearman coefficient is used to assess how much clients and contractors agree with each other in case of delay in construction projects.Also, we have utilized Relative Important Index (RII) to rank delay factors and economic challenges. Finally, the results show that in viewpoint of clients and contractors, decreasing value of land acquisition in construction projects, is the most important economic challenge.Therefore, agreements between clients and contractors is relatively strong. On the other hand, in customers’ point of view, lack of effective communication between them and clients is the main factor which causes delay in construction projects. Consequently, for policy makers, it is necessary to concentrate on possible economic challenges before implementation of the projects by an efficient management team to achieve desired results, and to reduce and resolve delay factors.